It is often desirable to store a substance, such as a liquid, solid, gas, mixtures thereof, or the like, in a container prior to mixing the contents of the container with another material. For example, it may be desirable to package and store a compound, or compounds, in a container for shipping and/or safe storage and handling, prior to combining the compound(s) with another material. It may be desirable to package and store a toxic compound in a container, prior to combining such a toxic compound with a detoxifying material. As well, it is often desirable to keep a concentrated active ingredient separate from a diluent until immediately prior to use.
Moreover, it may be desirable to store and/or ship diagnostic and/or nucleic acid preserving compositions prior to combining such a substance with a biological sample.
Additionally, it may be desirable to keep a substance isolated from a donor until the donor's biological sample has been collected. This will help to prevent the donor from accidentally ingesting or spilling the substance.
It may also be desirable to inactivate pathogens/infectious particles in a biological sample by combining it with a stored substance prior to storage and/or shipping and/or handling of the sample.
It may also be desirable to store and/or ship diagnostic and/or nucleic acid preserving compositions after combining such a substance with a biological sample.
There are a variety of containers for holding substances separately in such a manner that a user may open a closure to combine the substances. Typically these containers are double compartment systems in which substances are stored separately and substances are combined by removal of the container closures by a user.
International PCT application WO 2003/104251 describes a container for collecting a biological sample from a subject, and subsequently mixing the collected sample with a composition intended to stabilize, preserve, or facilitate the recovery of components of the sample. This container has a first region for collecting a biological sample, a second region containing a composition for preserving a nucleic acid, and a barrier between the first region and the second region, which when in a closed position, maintains the sample and composition separate. The exemplified barrier of WO 2003/104251 is a pivoting partition. Attachment of a lid to the container forces the barrier to pivot from its original closed position spanning the container and thereby separating the first region and the second region, to an open position in which both regions are exposed to each other and contact between the composition contained in one region space and the biological sample contained in the other region is allowed. A drawback of this container is that it includes multiple parts (e.g., lid, vial, disk, rod, rod holder), which increases the cost of manufacture of the container. Additionally, because the disk is held in place by friction fit, there must be a high degree of precision for the manufacture of the components of the container.
There remains a need for an improved container system for releasably and reliably storing a substance.
This background information is provided for the purpose of making known information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.